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DoD opens bidding for secure mobile device project

The Defense Information Systems Agency on Monday issued the latest in a string of
recent contract announcements aimed at bringing a new generation of mobile devices
into the Defense Department.

The request for proposals ask
industry to build
or bring a solution that would integrate the secure management of mobile devices
together with an internal DoD app store.

DISA officials want the mobile framework to support at least
162,500 devices
and scale up to 262,500 by the end of the up to three-year contract, though the
agency is open to idea of eventually expanding the mobile device manager to
provide service to the entire Defense Department. The agency did not disclose an
estimated budget for the contract.

The winning vendor would have to support at least Apple's iOS and Google's Android
operating systems; support for BlackBerry and Windows mobile devices is a plus,
but not required, DoD officials wrote in the RFP. The contractor would also be
responsible for making sure the mobility platform complies with security
requirements such as FIPS 140-2-compliant encryption of data, both on the devices
and in transit across networks.

DISA views the MDM contract, set to begin in April of 2013, as a shorter-term
solution on a pathway to eventually supporting and managing up to eight million
mobile devices under a single DoD-wide enterprise umbrella. DISA officials have
previously described a phased approach to an enterpisewide mobile solution in DoD,
with new capabilities coming online roughly every 120 days. For the interim
project, DISA won't require full compliance with the department's mobility
reference architecture.

"The DoD has both long-term and short-term mobility solution requirements.
Because the current market landscape is still maturing from a security and
architecture perspective, the critical requirements provided for this MDM-MAS
acquisition are short-term and are limited in scope to provide the government the
flexibility to adjust with evolving solutions," officials wrote in the
solicitation. "The current (performance of work statement) is shaped to reflect
the capabilities currently available in the marketplace. The overall objective of
this effort is to provide mobile capabilities that move the DoD towards
implementation of its long term mobility vision."

The MDM and app store solicitation is the latest in a flurry of activity DISA has
previously promised would appear at a "fast and furious" pace in the broader
effort to move DoD beyond BlackBerrys, the only devices that are widely supported
in the department today because of security challenges with iOS and Android.

Earlier this month, DISA spent just shy of a million dollars to buy
iPhones and iPads
as part of its mobility tests. In a separate solicitation, it asked industry for
ideas that would let DoD users authenticate themselves on DoD networks using their
common access cards via mobile devices. And the agency expects to issue a request
for information within the coming days in hopes of building a gateway that would
let DoD's mobility infrastructure securely interface with the networks of
commercial wireless carriers.